Rare Gray Wolf Photographed In Grand Canyon Region May Have Been Accidentally Killed

By Jess Baker

Published Dec 31,2014 08:45AM,EST

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A photo taken in October 2014 shows what was suspected to be a female gray wolf near the Grand Canyon.  (AP Photo/Arizona Fish and Game Dept.)

A stunning turn in the case of what researchers believed to be the first northern gray wolf in Arizona in 70 years.
According to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, a coyote hunter accidentally shot and killed a radio-collared northern gray wolf near Beaver, Utah, on Sunday.  He notified the DWR as soon as he realized what had happened.
The announcement comes just weeks after wildlife experts confirmed a female gray wolf had traveled hundreds of miles from the Northern Rockies into the Grand Canyon region. It was the first of its kind in the area in more than seven decades.
LiveScience reports the animal could be the very same one that excited researchers when it was first spotted in Northern Arizona in the fall.
"This was a worry of ours," Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity told LiveScience. "Personally, I'm very saddened by it."
(MORE: Fantastic Wildlife Discoveries of 2014)
Wolves often roam vast distances in search of food and mates. But the farther they go, the less likely they are to find a mate, said Ed Bangs, who led recovery efforts for wolves in the Northern Rockies over two decades before retiring from the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2011.
About 25 percent of the roughly 1,700 wolves from the Northern Rockies are being tracked, wildlife officials said. They are distinguished from the Mexican gray wolves found in the Southwest by their more full bodies and less pointed ears.
Mike Jimenez with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Wyoming said Northern Rockies gray wolves are hard-wired to disperse and have traveled hundreds of miles. One young female started off in Montana and traveled 3,000 miles over six months, making stops in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Colorado before it died, he said. Colorado had been the farthest journey south for the animals until the female was confirmed in Arizona, he said.
The DWR said it will continue to investigate whether the wolves are one in the same.
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